Why must I pay to park?

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Where does University parking receive its funding from and why must i pay to park?

Who funds parking?

UTA Parking and Transportation is completely self-funded. This means that we do not receive any portion of student tuition to build, repair, or maintain the 16,500 parking spaces you use to park when on campus, or to run the shuttle buses and safe-ride programs that operate each day.  In fact, Texas State Law prohibits public universities from requiring all students to pay a mandatory parking fee to park on campus.  Instead, they allow only those that use the facilities to pay to park. This is why Parking & Transportation sells parking permits to those that bring a vehicle to campus.

Parking Services generate revenue through permit sales, citations, short-term meters, late fees and special event parking. The department also receives compensation from the City of Arlington for a shared parking garage.  

Transportation Services receives a $25 per year Shuttle Bus fee from students taking a face-to-face class, and $60,000 from the Security Fee.  These two transportation fees fund approximately 40 percent of the annual MavMover shuttle and Late Night Escort expenses. The remaining revenue required to operate the transportation services comes from private student-housing apartment complexes that pay for a shuttle stop, charters, and Parking Services revenue.

Where does the money go?

The revenue received from these units helps cover the expenditures related to the campus shuttles, parking lot maintenance, parking garage(s) debt service, payroll for staff, and to fund a portion of the UTA Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management.

For example:

• Fiscal Year 2017-18, UTA spent more than $6 million on providing additional parking lots for students, upgrades to the Maverick Garage and parking lot maintenance.
• Fiscal Year 2018-19, UTA spent nearly $1.3 million on Lot 30 and Lot 36 repairs.
• Fiscal Year 2021-22, UTA spent $275,000 repairing the Lipscomb Hall parking lot, and over $200,000 to upgrade all campus parking lot lighting to brighter LED bulbs.
• Fiscal Year 2022-23, UTA spent $400,000 on parking lot repairs for F10 and Lot 49.

What are my permit options?

As a department that reaches the entire campus and beyond, it is our responsibility to consider the needs of the campus and community. In doing so, we acknowledge our fiscal responsibility to cover the cost of the services we provide. The largest source of our revenue is derived from permit sales. It is our goal to provide a variety of permit options and allow the campus community to decide how they should balance cost versus convenience while being transparent and providing our historical permit prices on our website.

For customers who value parking closer to the heart of campus, we offer premium parking in the Maverick Parking Garage, reserved parking in surface lots (faculty/staff only), and the Student Upgrade or Faculty/Staff Upgrade lots. These individuals choose to pay a higher permit fee, but enjoy the benefits of our most convenient parking options.

For customers who want the best balance of price and convenience, we offer the Faculty/Staff General permit and the Off-Campus Student General permit. These permits represent a large selection of on-campus parking, and provide individuals the ability to park in lots throughout campus, including the West Campus Garage (students only) and College Park Garages.

For students and staff who are interested in value versus convenience, we have created reduced rate options in the Remote Park & Ride and the Reduced Rate permit. The Reduced Rate permit allows faculty/staff and students to park in LOT GR and LOT 29 for a discounted rate. These options allow the permit holder to walk to the heart of campus or ride the MavMover Shuttle. The Remote Park & Ride permit allows students and staff to park in remote lots and is sold at the lowest rate of any permit. These permit holders will likely only ride the MavMover shuttle bus onto campus.

Continuing with our goal of providing a variety of permit options, we also provide a multitude of varying lengths of permits. Our permits are offered at hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, semester, or annual rates. Our pricing concept is based on the bulk sales approach- the more you buy, the more you save. This translates to a lower daily rate based on a greater number of days purchased.

Additionally, Parking & Transportation pays close attention to how our permit prices compare to other Texas institutions. We have covered expenditures by maximizing non-permit revenue streams, allowing UTA to maintain some of the lowest parking permit prices compared to our peer Texas institutions. This is important to us as we are committed to keeping permit prices as low as possible.

 

Transportation Options:

In an effort to better serve the UTA community, Parking and Transportation also provides the MavMover shuttle service. This service operates throughout the university, providing safe and convenient travel around campus. The MavMover Shuttle service runs from 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. weekdays and covers over 20 shuttle stops across campus. In addition to the on-campus shuttle, we have expanded routes off campus providing our students with access to the best dining, shopping, and entertainment options in Arlington.

Parking and Transportation also provide the UTA community with a late night, on-campus transportation option. The Late Night Security Escort Service is an uber-like golf cart service that runs from 7:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. seven days a week, and provides door-to-door service for getting around campus.  The average wait for a ride on this service is 12 minutes. Customers can request a ride by downloading the Tapride by Doublemap app.

Still have questions? Contact us at parking@uta.edu.